Poison Ivy
by Bracken-Fae
Summary: And I'm back! I can't remember what the original summary was, but just read it. RikuOC, other pairings may become apparent as.. well, as I write them! -Chapter 4 fully posted-
1. Chapter One

OK, peoples, this is the first chapter of my up-and coming… thing!... that will stun you to.. coughs hospital… poor Bert, my reviewer person thingy, so young mourns over her imaginary friend Anyhoo, I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters or any of that craeep.

Chapter 1.

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Watching the view out her bedroom window, which just happened to be sailing along (she lived on a house-boat) Ivy could see the most beautiful sunset, casting a pinky orange hue over the few clouds shrouding the Sun. As the boat approached a small group of islands, two in all, one seemingly deserted, the other housing a few small huts, she heard her brother, Farrouh, call:

"Land ahoy!" He ran below deck, thinking that Ivy wouldn't have heard him, and knocked on the door "Can I come in?" he asked, suddenly shy.

"Yeah" Ivy mumbled, distantly. Farrouh didn't hear her, but strolled in casually anyway. Farrouh was 2 years older than Ivy, who was 15. Ivy completely ignored her 17 year-old brother for a few seconds, still gazing at the horizon. Farrouh, all too used to this kind of treatment, his Father was sometimes the same, just stood and breathed in the scent of Ivy's small room. 'It must be her perfume', he thought to himself. It smelled of flowers, of roses and lavender and lilacs. 'Kind of like Moms. It could even be. She used to make it herself; she could have taught Ivy how to make it before…' Farrouh hesitated. Ivy stirred, sensing something wrong with her brother.

"What's up?" she asked, a frown creasing her forehead.

"Oh, nothing, just thinking." Farrouh replied.

"Mum?" Ivy asked, simply, knowing instantly. Farrouh never thought. Their Mother had died from a freak accident while performing, five years ago, but to Ivy and Farrouh, it seemed like just yesterday. It even affected Cid, their Father, who didn't usually show his emotions all too well. It seemed to plague them all, an imaginary cloud constantly following them, hunting them down and casting a shadow over them – always.

"Yes." Farrouh sighed, looking at the ground. "She would have loved this place. I can't stop thinking about her." Ivy said nothing, she found it too painful. She felt tears prick her eyes, and quickly twisted her torso around, to face the window yet again. Farrouh knew why she had so quickly turned away. He walked slowly up to his cowering younger sister, and put his hand on her shoulder, an unusual show of affection. Ivy said nothing, but grunted to show her approval. It wasn't an awkward silence that followed, but Farrouh felt odd. Ivy and he had never gotten along since their Mother had died; one had never even been able to start a sentence without the other making a verbal attack. Farrouh liked this, though, stroking Ivy's auburn hair, as if he really was her big brother, comforting her. He looked at her freckles; he had thought they had faded away years ago. They had definitely faded a little, but they were still there. He took a good look at her while he still had a chance. 'Eyes just like Mum,' he thought to himself, as he peeked at her eyes, trying not to let her see. Ivy knew he was staring at her, trying to take in everything about her while he still could. She wished it could be like this more, them being proper brother and sister, him gazing into her calm, sea-blue eyes, trying to suss her thoughts out.

Ivy and Farrouh stayed like this for as long as would be allowed, which was until a disgruntled Cid called to them both:

"Get y'er butts up here now! Everyone else's already docked their boats!" Startled, Farrouh and Ivy jumped about a mile in the air, turned to each other and gave a short giggle at themselves, and, Ivy getting up, and Farrouh helping her, they sprinted out the door. Just before they got to the stairs, though, Farrouh stopped Ivy, and told her what he had originally gone all that way out of his room to tell her.

"Ivy" he said, seemingly himself once again.

"Yep?"

"Can you remember the last place we were touring?"

"Of course I can, baka"

"Well, you know this time, no offence, but can you try not to mess it up for us by being, well, you, to the locals? 'Cause last time you scared away all the girls." Ivy almost choked. She was outraged. She felt herself going red,

"Is that all you think about?" then she stopped, and putting on her sarcastic face said, "Oh yes, that and how to make your sister feel worst!" she kicked him in the shin, and fled.

On deck, they all helped Cid to steer the narrow boat into the small harbour, Farrouh wisely avoiding Ivy. They pulled up slowly, and Ivy jumped off, narrowly missing the water. 'Why does he have to be such a jerk?' she thought to herself, furiously. She kicked up some sand, and a few pebbles, pretending they were his head, and decided to go exploring.


	2. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, so bog offfffffff… however Ivy and Farrouh, and all the other characters that belong to me, belong to meeeee... and don't mention Cid, cos that's a weird one, I could just see him (Ivy's Dad) being a Cid. Oh, yeah, and I diiiid try to make him sound drunk, but it only worked a liiiittle bit. Sorry!!

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Chapter 2

Ivy decided to head back. It was getting dark, after all. She had been everywhere on the small island, and had already appointed her favourite spot to practice her dancing. That's how Ivy earned her keep. She danced, along with some other girls from the sort of band of gypsies that they lived with. They weren't really her friends, Ivy (or Poison Ivy as she was more commonly known) didn't have any friends, except herself, and then again she wasn't a very good friend even to herself. Farrouh earned his keep by playing guitar in a band along with his friends, sometimes he sang as well. Arima, Ivy's older sister, who was 20, (21 in November), sang. She was a spoilt, petulant brat if ever there was one, thought Ivy, as she kicked up the white sand with her muddy old boots. Good voice, though. She guessed that's all that mattered around here. If you could bring in the Munny, then you were the star of the show, but if not, then you were nothing better than a pebble in their shoe. They didn't like pebbles in their shoes very much. Ivy sighed, and kicked up some more of the white sand. She was glad that she was good at something.

Ivy spied a small fire burning a way away on the sand, and smelled a barbeque. A band of people she knew, and some she didn't, were gathered around this fire, some holding guitars, strumming distantly, and mouthing vague words Ivy couldn't quite interpret. She assumed that they were singing. Some were talking away, ten to the dozen, and some, the more quiet types, were concentrating solely on their food, munching away slowly. She walked up to her Dad, and he shouted drunkenly,

"Here she is, my little Poison Plant!" (This is Cid's idea of affection.) Cid waved his patterned plate about. Some kids looked up at her, 'must be around my age,' she thought, staring, entranced, into the flames.

"Yes, Dad, I'm back. And who are these people?" She asked, waving randomly at these people she didn't know, congregated around her father.

"Oh, these are some of the lovely kids living on that island right over there" He pointed to the other small island, the one which looked like it was inhabited. "Looks like we weighed anchor at precise - hic! - the wrong spot" Cid was quite clearly plastered. Ivy, not a bit fazed or embarrassed by this, just shrugged to show she didn't care. A small kid, with ash blonde hair spoke up.

"Hey, I'm Tidus" he said, holding his hand out to shake, or hi-five or something, what it was Ivy didn't care.

"Pleasure, I'm sure," Said Ivy, a look of pure repulsion working its way across her face. Then she remembered, she was supposed to introduce herself, it was just good manners. She mentally mock-slapped herself on the forehead for this, and then, reluctantly said "Oh, and I'm Ivy."

"Cool." Said the young boy. Ivy had decided that he was younger than her. "And this is Selphie, and Wakka" a girl who looked about the same age as Tidus waved enthusiastically, obviously having consumed too much caffeine or sugar or something, and a boy, who looked at least a year or two older than the other two, said, in a very odd-sounding Jamaican accent

"Hey, what's happening?" Ivy looked slightly puzzled, then, not being able to think of ay decent come-back, frowned sarcastically. Wakka, a bit confused at her reading into his casual greeting, stood up, and said, scratching the back of his orange head: "We best be getting home, ya know?" Ivy couldn't help but think he looked like an onion. Selphie groaned girlishly, and Tidus, seemingly reluctant, stood up, and held his out to Selphie's. 'They must be quite close' thought Ivy, as she read the expressions on the three friend's faces towards each other.

"Oh, - hic! – You have to go so soon?" Cid said, barely able to sit up. Ivy sighed, and snatched the brown bottle out of his hand "Hey, you little- give that back!" Then, seeing Selphie, Tidus and Wakka half way down the beach, called "Come back tomorrow! And bring those other people- hic! - you were talking about!!!" and with that, he fell backwards off his chair, and was out cold until the morning.

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OK, that was very weird, and I'm not sure I liked it. Well review peoples, review!! Haha I'm still repeating stuff. And again, thank all you people out there who actually took the time to read this crap. I love you all!!! I also need some help, if you think I should carry on, could you review please? It will definitely get finished eventually, but I'm having ideas for another fanfic, so if you want me to continue, please review. I'm gonna go now, before I repeat myself so much they evict me. Biiii

**27th October 06**: To Against Prejudice, I'm very sorry I offended you, this was not intentional and my apologies go out to anyone else offended by Wakka's 'odd-sounding Jamaican accent'.

I would like to point out that I am not an ignorant person and am highly against stereotyping and prejudice myself. The reason I portrayed Wakka the way I did in this fiction is because this is his individual character in my opinion, you know like the guy in Final Fantasy 8 (and KH2 now) who always says 'y'know'? It's how he speaks, and I never, in any part of my story, said this was how all Jamaicans (and Trinidadians) speak.

Thanks for listening and thanks for the review!

Bracken


	3. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Kingdom Hearts (or FFX-2 -Shinra) I only own, of course, the ones that I own. MWAHAHA

I have decided that Ivy's 'Special Place' isn't the platform with the Paopu Tree on, because it's too cliché for me… Sooo… enjoy… hides

Hey, and I also found out that the 'platform thingy' is _actually _called the islet, so all of you people out there who didn't know before, can now thank me!!! Oh yes. I'm just wonderful -Boos and hisses from the crowd- Okay, I'll just get on with the story…

Haha! I have returned, I just got everything uploaded onto the new computer and sooo I decided to read through all of this. **I do not own 'Chinese Burn' by Curve.

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Chapter 3.

The next day, Ivy woke up, to the Sun streaming in through the stained glass window next to her bed. She groaned, mumbled something along the lines of

'I don't want the goldfish fried, Granddad' and turned over. Not able to get back to sleep, she decided she would get up, and visit her special place.

She pulled the baggy old brown T-Shirt off, she had got it as a souvenir from one of the places she had visited a while ago, she sometimes slept in it when it was hot, she smiled vaguely at it, thinking of all the memories it brought back, and dumped it on the floor, before raiding her drawer and pulling out a clean top and trousers, and putting them on, as if in a rush, like she knew that she had to get there quickly.

When Ivy arrived at her destination, she stared into the spring, which constantly had a rainbow in its midst. It was much brighter this morning. She looked at the dark cave, just to the left of the 'little oasis' as one of the girls, Adriana, had dubbed it, and decided that she'd have to explore that one day, but maybe she'd take someone with her, it looked rather sinister.

She climbed the ladder leading up to the Tree House, and had been stood on the balcony outside for about 5 minutes, watching the horizon, when something caught her eye, down on the shore. She sat down, so she could get a closer look. She threaded her legs through the make-shift, flimsy wooden bars, and was just tall enough to see over the top, with a clear view of the two boys below her. One was tall, with silvery-blue hair, and poofy blue trousers. The other was probably about the same height as Ivy herself, with very spiky brown hair, which looked as if he had either spent hours gelling it up, or it was just naturally messy. Ivy squinted, so she could get a clearer view of this boy's attire. It looked to be mainly of a crown theme. Ivy couldn't see very well, but it looked as if they both had bright blue eyes, although the taller ones were more aquamarine, and the other boy's of the deepest blue, but extremely clear, showing off his innocence. The older one was clutching two wooden swords, and appeared to be jeering the other one on.

"Come on, I betcha can't beat me one-on-one, grab your sword!" The silver-haired boy yelled, throwing him a piece of wood, which looked suspiciously like a sword. The smaller, brown haired boy failed to catch this sword, and comically dived down after it. A few seconds later, he rose again, looking slightly red, and rubbing the back of his head. "Come on, the winner gets to share a Paopu with Kairi"

This obviously tweaked a nerve with the small, brown haired boy, as he blushed a deeper shade of crimson, and was just about to say something, when the older boys' sword came rushing towards him, and he blocked it swiftly. A furious battle ensued, the silver-haired boy sometimes shouting something like "You still don't got it" or "What are you so afraid of?" The smaller boy battled hard, and was obviously giving his all, but it just wasn't good enough. The silver haired boy was very talented at this. But eventually, when it looked as though the brown-haired one would give up, he got a slightly odd grin on his lips, and with a shove of urgency, he managed to find a flaw in the taller boy's defences, and performed an odd sort of move, which knocked the other boy down. Both boys, at this point wore a look of absolute surprise on their faces, and the smaller one helped the other one up, obviously bursting to say something, but knowing he really shouldn't.

"Thanks." Said the older one, simply.

"Welcome." The younger one replied. Then, not being able to hold it in any longer, he jumped up, hit the air and screamed "I beat you! Now the score's 5-2!!! Hahaha" and ran off, knowing the older one would kill him. The silver-haired boy shook his head, and chased after him.

Ivy watched these two boys for a while after this, it seemed that they were both best friends, and the person, Kairi, who the tall one talked about, was also their friend. Although these two were the best of friends, it seemed as though there was an unspoken rivalry between them, and Ivy wanted to know why. The place she could always find them was on the platform, by an oddly shaped tree. When she had asked Tidus what this was, apart from being surprised that she had actually talked to him, and not at him, he said it was called the 'Paopu Tree'

Tidus, Selphie and Wakka had taken a shine to Cid and his son, Farrouh, and spent most of their time with them, and not, as it seemed to Ivy, doing what they usually did, which was battle each other for fun. Ivy sort of wished that they were still holding battles; she'd like to pulverize someone.

A couple of days later, Cid announced that the date of their first performance on Destiny Islands would be one week later, and Tidus, Selphie and Wakka were hung-up with excitement. Ivy decided she should start making up the dance immediately, and got the 3 other girls she would usually perform with together, to work out and practice a dance. Before the end of the first day of practicing came to a close, the four had worked out a dance, and the other three girls went to have dinner with the others.

Ivy packed up the stereo (another souvenir she had got from a place they had visited, it saved Farrouh and his band playing while they danced, this got quite boring after a while.) and carefully put it back in its special place in her room, she followed, to discover that the three friends she had been watching for all this time were now sat round the fire, next to Cid and Wakka. Ivy had a nagging feeling that she wouldn't enjoy dinner if she sat down with them, so she went back to the boat, and made herself some pasta. She ate this, taking her time, and then went to the Tree House, and practiced the dance, with painstaking precision, all the while, not thinking of anything but the trio she spent scrutinizing, and all Tidus, Selphie and Wakka had told her.

She mulled it all over in her head, special detail she had picked up herself, her own judgments of each of these very individual characters, and then came to thinking of why she was actually observing these people in the first place. She felt kind of like a stalker, she knew her behaviour often baffled people, but at the moment, the only person she was truly baffling was herself. She became so angry with herself that she tripped and fell flat on her rear end. Cursing slightly, she got up, and looked out of the door less door-frame, and saw the night sky, dotted with silvery stars, and looked up to the glimmering moon, glowing, sat, nestled in-between stars, smiling warmly to herself.

The time passed like a flash of lightning, and by the end of the highly-apprehended week, the four girls knew the dance like they now knew the island, for they had explored every grain of sand as far as Ivy was concerned, except maybe, the Secret Place, as she had heard it called by Tidus. She was still aware of a very strange… aura… pulsating around that place. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she was sure that when the time came to go in, she would know.

At precisely 6 o' clock, the curtains went up, and Cid stepped out into the limelight (with a tux on, to most people's surprise) and spoke into the microphone he held, which made his voice seem 100 times louder than usual, which, considering the volume of Cid's voice anyway, made everyone (except those performing - they were used to it) cover their ears, and, when finally used to it, have to shout across to their friends and family for them to even hear slightly what was being said.

He announced the start of the 'long-awaited show' as he called it, and the curtain went up, as Arima, (Ivy's older sister) began to sing 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion. (A/N, Don't say anything, I don't own it and couldn't think of anything else)

"Is this all she can sing?" Ivy said to herself, as she brushed her hair, getting ready to dance, as she was 7th up, just after the interval. "Best place to be in the show, everyone comes back feeling really into it and refreshed, you don't get little kids screaming that they want to go to the loo half way through. God I hate that." She shook her head to herself, and cursed as she brushed through a particularly nasty knot.

The show ticked past, Farrouh arrived, late, as it had been his turn to accept and sell the tickets on the door. He winked to the younger girls, who swooned at this behaviour, as he entered his changing room. Ivy shook her head, and muttered a couple of obscenities to herself. She couldn't possibly see what they saw in him, but he had got them all gossiping about his 'yumminess'. Her expression obviously told something of her thoughts, because even the most dense of the three other girls noticed, and said

"Aren't you so glad that Farrouh's your brother, Ivy?"

"Of course not, Ivy hasn't even noticed Riku, isn't he gorgeous?" one of the other girls said evilly to Ivy.

"Yeah, he's wonderful, I just love the self-centred, arrogant type." Ivy announced, sarcastically, as she pushed past the dumbfounded girls to peer through the curtains onto the stage. She watched Shinra doing his 'Shinra the Amazing Al-Bhed' Act, in which he did his best to balance spinning plates on sticks and so forth. All in all, it was quite a sweet act, and Ivy liked it all the better seeing as it was right before the interval.

The fifteen minutes of break-time flew by, and all-too-soon for some of the less confident girls, it was time for them to perform.

The music began to play, they strutted onto the stage, each wearing a black mini and black fishnet top, with, of course a black bra or bikini top underneath. They each took their starting positions, which would double as their finishing positions. They danced in time with the beat, bobbing as if all they knew was that, at that exact moment. Ivy had specifically chosen this song because, well, she just liked it. It was in your face and malicious, like her. It did indeed remind her of herself, and she was sure that if any of the girls had had more sense then they would have realised this.

The voice began to sing, and they began to really get into the dance. **She burns friends like a piece of wood** **And she's jealous of me because she never could** **Hold herself up without a spine** **And she'll look me up when she's doing fine**

The girls all pivoted, hand on hip and looked behind them with massive attitude. Ivy was second to the left, being one of the taller girls. They each raised their hands above their heads and waved them up once, down once and turned back around to await the next move:

**Because the rage it burns like Chinese torture** **She's just someone's favourite daughter** **Spoilt and ugly as she willingly slaughters** **Friends and enemies they're all the same** **All the same** **Crush her fame** **Burn her name**

Ivy was truly happy whilst dancing, it was the only thing that totally took her mind off past experiences. She glanced out to the audience and saw that everyone was loving the dance; some were even watching and copying their moves. She could do the dance without thinking about it; it had now become a ritual for Ivy to just watch the audience towards the middle of the song. They dipped sexily as the next part of the verse came along.

**She'll break a promise as a matter of course** **Because she thinks its fun to have no remorse** **She gets what she wants and walks away** **And she doesn't give a fuck what you might say** **Because it cuts her up like Irish mortar** **Mother's pride is what we taught her** **Soiled and petty as we happily taunt her** **Friend and enemy, we're all to blame**

At this, the four girls split into two at the front and two at the back. The back two repeated a few select moves in time with the beat whilst the front two did their thing. Ivy was in the back, but didn't stay there for long, as her and Adrianna, the other taller girl moved forward, walking as if on a catwalk and then danced their little bit whilst the other two girls now at the back repeated their few moves to the background beat. Adrianna and Ivy were the better of the four dancers, even though Ivy was one of the younger ones. And, as Cid always said, 'best 'til last'. They did their thing and the crowd went wild, jumping and throwing around water that they had bought from the (reasonably priced) refreshments stand. Ivy was not fazed at this, it most always happened.

**She'll burn us bad** **She'll flaunt her fame** **She'll make us remember, make us remember her name**

The girls skipped back into line, each shaking down, then raising their arms in different directions at the same time, doing their 'cheerleader part' as Ivy called it. The loop returned and they did the same thing.

**She'll burn us bad** **She'll flaunt her fame** **She'll make us remember, make us remember her name**

The singing paused for a while, and they separated into their two halves again, now on each side, a sort of dance-off taking place.

**If she sits still like she knows she could** **She could win this game and be the queen for good** **Save herself up for the cream of the crop** **Then she'll look us up when she's ready to stop** The dance off continued, the top half of the verse being occupied this time by Ivy and Adrianna, tilting their heads and being altogether aggressive. The other two bounced back with their second part and it was clear that the dance had been practiced repeatedly. **Because the rage it burns like Chinese torture** **She's just someone's favourite daughter** **Spoilt and ugly as she willingly slaughters** **Friends and enemies are all that came** **To burn her name** **Crush her fame ****Burn her name** **Crush her fame** **Burn her name** **Crush her fame** **Burn her name** The dance off session finished, and they returned to their end positions. **We're all to blame** The music trailed off, the crowd wondering whether it had finished yet. Obviously they were not expecting the big ending, the fireworks shooting from the front of the stage. Everyone jumped, most people thinking the Heartless had returned or something had blown up. Then they realised and watched as the colours filled the darkened sky. Somehow the girls had managed to convince Shinra the Amazing Al-Bhed to help them out and managed to compile the best finale they had ever unveiled. Even Cid was surprised at the splendour the fireworks showed. The final one shot from the very centre of the stage, spelling out 'Chinese Burn' in pink and green letters 10 feet tall. The crowd cheered, and the girls filed off stage. The rest of the night was a huge success, and everyone (including Poison Ivy the Sullen) enjoyed themselves to no end.


	4. Chapter Four

I had an RE exam today and ten minutes to spare at the end so I decided to have the urge to start writing Chapter 4. I hope my English teacher appreciates the first part of chapter four scribbled in my book o.O

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except Ivy and the characters that you don't recognise. Do you know what I've realised… **

**And a big thank you to Hello, (haha) my first reviewer in a long time! I had forgotten how much difference a review can make, and I'm glad you liked the dancing bit. I was veeery unsure about that part. :D thank you big lots!!! Hope you like the next bit! **

**I also received another review on the er… 17th, which made me get my butt into gear. I'm going to try my hardest to get this posted tonight. Thanks!!!

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**Chapter 4**

It was late. Ivy wasn't sure exactly what the time was, but she returned to her boat gazing at the stars, feeling like there was no bottom to her stomach and that she could eat forever. She wasn't tired, she had done this too many times to let herself be tired. She had made sure she'd eaten, drunk and slept at least double what she usually would to ensure her body was working properly.

She walked down past the islet, down towards the Seaside Shack, and past the Oasis. Her feet were sore and she was hot and sticky all over from her dance and being packed in, after she had been on stage, backstage. Maybe she could avoid being exhausted after doing this over and over, but sweating was just something she couldn't avoid, however much she hated it. There was no breeze about that night, and she thought to herself 'a quick dip in the oasis won't hurt, will it?' She sat carefully down on the side and pulled off the boots she had gotten changed back into.

After shedding these, and rolling her baggy black cut-offs up even further, she cautiously dipped in her toes. If anyone had seen her at that moment, they would have either been shocked to the bone (if they knew her) or think that she was completely innocent and child-like (if they had never even seen her before in their life that is.) Her long, auburn hair was cascading down her back, as she was too hot to tie it up; it was so long the very tips of it touched the ground she was sitting on. Finally, after several cautious moments of half-hearted toe-dipping, she gave up and stuck the whole foot in. The water rose to mid-calf, and she decided to wade deeper in, feeling a cool sensation grip her body. Soon it was almost up to mid thigh, where the denim cut offs were now rolled up to. Ivy had now abandoned not just the will to not get her things wet and look like a fool, lounging around in the waterfall, but all of the usual sarcasm and baggage she carried around. Sometimes people just do that; abandon most of the bad things that they are for a short period of time, and this seemed to be one of them. At the time she didn't understand, didn't even realise it was happening, but afterwards, when she thought on it, she thought perhaps it was that pure, clean water flowing over her (completely the opposite) body. Maybe it was just one of those times when it hits you how big the world is and it just puts it into perspective, the size of you (and your baggage) against all of that, making you decide you just don't care.

But her peace and quiet was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of three beings, who were racing down the beach and onto the islet. Ivy shrank behind the fall so that nobody would interrupt her peaceful state, and they missed her completely. They ran into the Seaside Shack, the oldest of the trio exclaiming reasonably loud that he won. Ivy came back out of the fall, just to see them arrive on the bridge, walk along in a little string and, one by one, the silver haired boy first and the red haired girl last, jump onto the falling-over Paopu Tree.

Although she felt cleansed, clean and new, she didn't want an encounter, she felt she just wasn't ready to meet these people for some reason. After all, the effect of the waterfall was not to erase everything that she was before. She wandered, dazed, as if drunk, into the Secret Place, her past fears at the back of her mind. A cold wave washed over the tall-ish girl as she stepped, still barefoot, into the dark tunnel leading to, what she imagined was a hollow, probably with no light in at all. As she padded along the floor, which seemed to be made of a concrete type substance, as it definitely wasn't sand, she gazed doe eyed at the walls. On some patches, there were markings which looked like chalk, drawn by small children. It contrasted greatly with the general feeling of forbidding, the childishness which lay behind those chalked up sketches. Time seemed to stand still as she ventured ever further into the deepness of the cave, until she found herself, perching, altogether surprised, on a rock in the middle of the rounded cave, star and moonlight streaming through hole in the rock formation above her. She felt entirely safe, cocooned in the darkness, until she caught sight of the brown door outlined in gold, situated in the corner. She shivered, and felt compelled to touch it, not sensing that the shiver she received was just a reverberation from the shadowed person standing behind her, not the door itself. She touched the door, feeling half-blindly for a door knob or something for which she could open it. She didn't succeed, and instead fell to wondering what was behind it. She was beginning to get cold, as there was a slight breeze drafting in through the top of the cave. She shivered again, but didn't leave. She sat down for a long while, thinking about what could possibly be behind the door.

"Your dance was brilliant. I especially thought you were great. You conveyed such emotion, I almost felt as if the song was about you in some way." The voice made her jump several times, but continued, sounding slightly amused, until it had finished what it wanted to say.

"Well thank you, but I think I had better go. I'm cold and wet and I need a proper shower." But something made her stop. Nothing came out of the shadows, the person who had just been talking to her appeared to have vanished just as suddenly as it appeared to have come. They certainly didn't try to stop her from leaving. The tense feeling had passed now that she had been distracted from the door, and whoever had just spoken seemed to have left. A cloud passed over the moon and Ivy glanced around at the numerous sketches resembling

the ones on the way into the cave. She could hardly make them out, though through the darkness, she saw many of people in threes… there was one of what seemed to be three children, two holding little swords and one with a sort of crown above his head. The other two appeared to be just 'standing' in the background, altogether making a triangle. Across from that, there was a rough one of the boy from the background of the last, with spiky hair, and a very badly drawn duck, and also… was that a dog type thing? It was hard to tell. After comparing these two designs, weighing each up and glancing momentarily around at the others, she looked over to the door, wondering if any might be around there, or if there were any clues as to how to open it. There were not. Though she did spy a small one of just two spiky-haired people, smiling at each other, eating what looked like stars. She walked over to it reasonably slowly, tracing over it with her fingers. Was this… Sora and Kairi?

"If you're thinking about what I think you are, then yes, it is Sora and Kairi." The man stepped out of the shadows, a look of well-hidden pain scarring his face. "And if you are thinking what I think you're thinking now, then yes, I am Riku." He held out his hand, and Ivy didn't shake it.

"Ivy. Pleasure, I'm sure." The same look of distaste spread across her face. She used this one a lot, Riku could tell. A silence fell upon them with which Riku felt very uncomfortable. He tried to think of something to talk to her about, which he felt even more awkward about because he could usually talk to anyone or anything at any time of the day. But just as Riku was about to ask if she needed a towel or something, the mysterious girl got up from her cross legged position and walked straight out, pausing at the mouth of the cave to look behind her casually and wave at him 'goodbye'. She didn't look back as she walked out of the darkness and back into the moonlight. He heard clunking footsteps slow as the girl walked towards the jetty, the people (for there were actually two more 15 year olds outside, you just couldn't hear the other person's dainty feet)

"Riku? Are you in there?" I could hear Kairi's slightly concerned voice from outside. He leaned against the stone in the centre of the Secret Place and openly sighed.

"Yes, Kai, I'm in here. It's late, shouldn't you two young-uns be in bed?" He heard Sora sigh in a knowing kind of way, he knew when Riku would rather be left alone. Sora was much smarter than anyone gave him credit. They entered the cave holding hands. Riku glanced down and smirked, thinking he'd add something to show them he didn't completely wish them to be gone.

"Not together of course." It worked. Kairi had blushed and Sora's contented grin returned, although when Kairi glanced at him imploringly, he quickly replaced it with one of distaste and changed the subject.

"How come you just left like that? You almost scared us…" Sora trailed off after seeing Riku sit, cross legged on the floor, facing the door to the outside, the door with no handle. Kairi's look of vague fright returned, and she looked again to Sora to break Riku out of this sudden trance he seemed to have slipped into. Slowly, he tiptoed towards his older friend, and quietly sat next to him. He glanced up at Kairi and signalled that this might take a while. She got the hint, sighed and bid them goodnight, not expecting an answer from either of them.

After a long, tedious period of time, Sora finally worked up the courage to say anything, not caring whether it was the right or wrong thing to say anymore.

"What happened in here? I mean… we saw that dancer girl leave, did she… upset you or anything?" Riku was silent for just long enough that Sora decided to get up and leave, and was just about to do so when Riku spoke.

"You see anything unusual or interesting about this door?" He reached up and touched the door, as if wary that it might bite him.

"No… why do you ask?" Sora replied, trying (and failing) to cover up his distinct creeped-out-ness asked, sitting properly back down and making himself comfortable.

"Strange… I can't either, I wonder why she was so intrigued… it's just a door after all." Riku spoke more to himself than to Sora, although his head was inclined in Sora's direction. Sora himself however decided that he should leave the most probably pissed out of his skull Riku to his own thoughts. He got up and walked casually towards the entrance to the cave, quietly saying his goodnights. However, when he reached the cave mouth, the first of two progressively strange things jumped out from around the corner, and startled him so that he quite forgot his troubles with Riku. Funny that it should have been Riku himself that stopped it.

"Hey, Sora, you're not giving up are you?!" Riku hurried towards him casually, with that manner that only Riku achieved, as if he only half-wanted to see you. "I thought you had more guts to stick it out than that. Obviously not though…" Sora paused for a moment. He was still in shock. Although he did manage to gain his bearings quicker than usual, Riku was quite amused, and Sora stuttered his defence

"Hey, you're the one being all spiritual and creepy. What got into you?" He immediately regretted asking the question, knowing that he probably should have left it until a little later in the conversation to establish the 'what the hell were you doing's.'

"The 'dancer girl'" he used air quotes at this point (exaggerating his movements more than usual, Sora noted… just when he thought it was impossible for anyone to be more sarcastic than Riku, Riku out-did him. Again.) "was being exactly the same, but I daresay she was more inspiring. The way she talked was as if she'd just completely rediscovered herself or something. Romanticised, but it engaged me for a while, so I wanted to understand… I tried that 'empathy' lark. Not worth it, I'll tell you." He finished with a vague grin plastering his face, and Sora decided he'd better wake up soon before he went mad. But he continued to say nothing, hoping it might prompt Riku to say something else which actually made sense.

* * *

Finishing there because I can't think of anything else right now and I am increasingly aware that I went through an updating period which needs to be like… updated… or something. 

It's late!!!

Bracken xxx


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